Metallic roof gutter



Feb. 8, 1955 c. A. sHOLL METALLIC ROOF GUTTER Filed Aug. 16, 1950 FIG. 6

INVENTOR CLYDE ALBERT SHOLL BYdQMM ATTORNEY United States Patent METALLIC ROOF GUTTER Clyde Albert Sholl, Rio de Jaueiro, Brazil Application August 16, 1950, Serial No. 179,656

Claims priority, application Brazil August 26, 1949 4 Claims. (Cl. 108--28) When buildings are not provided with roof gutters rain water falls on the side walks, splashes and causes dampness in the walls. If the surrounding soil is clayish or non-absorbent, the water forms puddles and may breed mosquitoes.

Roof gutters are therefore an indispensable accessory, formerly used in nearlyall buildings, even in the most humble. damage to buildings, is detrimental to the comfort and health of occupants.

Roof gutters, of copper or galvanized iron, are made by plumbers, usually on site, but owing to the increased cost of sheet metals, particularly of copper, the use of copper gutters has decreased.

Their substitution by gutters of lower priced metals, such as galvanized iron, has the disadvantage of shorter life, due to oxidation, especially at the soldered joints, and owing to these reasons the use of metal gutters has decreased during recent years.

There are other suitable metals, such as aluminium and its alloys, but they are not used for this purpose because they cannot be soldered economically on site, and there is no other practical manner of joining gutters made from such metals.

This is the problem-the joining of roof gutters made from malleable metals that cannot be soldered-which this invention solves in a satisfactory manner.

With this end in view, the roof gutters improved by this invention will be manufactured in various pieces, such as plain gutters, corner gutters and spouted gutters, characterized by their being provided with locking joints, which when united on site and bent over by gentle hammering, forms a continuous gutter with perfect watertight joints, without the use of solder or rivets.

The interconnection of roof gutters by means of locking joints bent over by hammering, in accordance with this invention, instead of soldered or riveted joints, considerably reduces the labour cost of their installation. These locking joints permit the use of cheaper metals, such as aluminium and the mass prefabrication of roof gutters. Further, if employed for the prefabrication of gutters of copper or other malleable metals, this invention will considerably reduce manufacturing and installation costs.

The invention will be further described in connection with the accompanying drawings which are used by way of exemplification and not by way of limitation of the invention.

In the drawings,

Fig. l is a perspective view of the gutter;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of two gutter sections prior to assembly thereof;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of two gutter sections just after assembly thereof;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of two gutter sections after complete assembly thereof;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of two corner gutter sections prior to assembly thereof; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of two completely assembled corner gutter sections.

The plain gutters, Figs. 1 and 2, and the corner gutters, Figs. 5 and 6, prefabricated of any metal, form .or .size, are provided, at their extremities, with locking joints, consisting of male type 1, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, and female type 2, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, and with insertion guides 3, Figs. 1, 2, 5, and 6, and 4, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, formed The lack of gutters, in addition. to causing Patented Feb. 8, 1955 by the ends of the headings and are especially prepared for jointing on site by bending over by gentle hammering.

The male type locking joint consists of a single flange 1, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, bent outwards, along the edge of one of the extremities of the roof gutter. The female type locking joint, at the edge of the other extremity, consists of a double flange 2, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, shaped U, to receive the single flanged male joint.

The joining of the roof gutters is accomplished by inserting guide 3, Fig. 2, of the single flanged extremity of the gutter into the end of the guide 4, Fig. 2, of the double flanged extremity, and by a slight rotary upward movement of the single flanged gutter, so that it slides into the double flanged gutter, until both flanges are in alignment 12, Figs. 3 and 4, when the former roof gutter is again rotated, but downwards, as indicated by the curved arrow in Fig. 2, until the single flange fits completely inside the double flange, Fig. 3.

The flanges are then bent over by gentle hammering, against the gutter with single flange, Fig. 4. During this operation, the internal surface of both gutters is maintained in perfect alignment by means of a suitablepiece of wood, or pipe, acting as a support inside the gutter.

Then with a pair of pliers the extremities of the longitudinal edges 5, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, of the gutters and also of the beadings 4, Figs. 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6, are bent inwards, squeezed together and finished off, 6 and 7, Fig. 4, thereby forming a safety catch, which renders impossible any movement between the two parts of the joint.

This operation completes the joining of the gutters, which is thereby accomplished on site without any soldering or riveting, with ease and facility, even in places of difiicult access, such as at the eaves of a roof. The triple walled joint thus obtained 7, Fig. 4, is very simple, exceptionally rigid and completely watertight.

The corner gutters, Figs. 5 and 6, which have male and female locking joints at their ends, for joining to the other gutters, when being installed, by bending over by gentle hammering in the manner already described, consist of two halves, Fig. 5, united into a single piece, Fig. 6, during prefabrication, by means of flanged locking joints, of the same type as above described, but having, in addition, a reinforcing wire 8, Figs. 5 and 6, in the beading 9, Fig. 5, of the gutter with the female locking joint, into which is inserted the end of the beading 10, Fig. 5 of the gutter with the male type locking joint, and after performing the rotary movement which completes the joining 11, Fig. 6, of the flanges of both gutters, these flanges are bent over and finished off in the manner already described.

I claim:

1. The method of joining two sections of sheet metal roof guttering of generally semi-cylindrical shape end-toend by means of a locking lap joint formed of the metal of the adjacent ends of the two sections, each of said sections including a bead along one edge thereof, the beads of the two sections being in alignment whenthe sections are joined together end-to-end, comprising providing a bead extension on at least one of said sections at the end thereof to be joined to the other section, providing an outwardly extending male flange on the end of one section, providing an outwardly extending grooved flange on the end of the other section in which the groove extends upwardly, arranging the ends of the gutter sections to be joined adjacent to each other with the beads thereof in alignment but with the sections rotated out of place with respect to each other on the axis of the aligned beads, inserting one bead into the other, one of which includes said head extension until the gutter sections are moved toward each other to the extent that the male flange is in the same plane as the groove of the female flange, relatively rotating one section with respect to the other on the axis of said beads and thereby moving the male flange into the groove of the female flange, and while retaining the male flange in the groove of the female flange and the inner surfaces of the adjacent ends of the gutter sections in alignment bending the assembled flanges over onto the adjacent outer surface of the gutter section carrying of sheet metal guttering of generally semi-cylindrical shape joined together end-to-end by a lap joint formed of the metal of the two sections, the end portion of one section at the joint being bent backwardly uniformly along the under surface of said one section in spaced relation thereto, the end portion of the other section at the joint being bent outwardly and extending forwardly around the outer surface of and around the end of said backwardly-bent portion, the end of said other section at the joint being located in the bend of the end portion of said one section, the inside surfaces of the two sections of guttering at the joint being in alignment with each other, each section including a bead extending along one edge thereof, said beads being in alignment with each other and in overlapping engagement at the position of the joint whereby lateral movement of the two sections at the joint with respect to each other is prevented, and a catch means on each section, said catch means being located respectively on the opposite edges of the sections from said beads and on opposite sides of said joint in substantially the same plane for preventing longitudinal movement of said two sections toward each other.

3. A roof gutter section comprising a piece of sheet metal having its sides bent upwardly, a male flange at one end thereof extending outwardly at an angle of approximately 90, a female flange at the other end thereof extending outwardly at an angle of approximately 90, said female flange being formed by a portion extending outwardly and then inwardly to form a groove for the reception of a male flange of a corresponding gutter section, and a bead extending along one longitudinal edge of said gutter section, one end portion of the bead being smaller than the other and adapted for telescoping into the larger bead of a corresponding gutter section, whereby two gutter sections initially may be connected with their 4 said beads telescoping, and the sections then rotated relative to one another about said beads to insert the male flange of one gutter section into the female flange of the other gutter section.

4. The method of joining two sections of sheet metal roof guttering of generally semi-cylindrical shape end-toend by means of a locking lap joint formed of the metal of the adjacent ends of the two sections, comprising providing an outwardly-extending male flange on the end of one section, providing an outwardly-extending grooved flange on the end of the other section in which the groove extends upwardly, providing a bead along one edge of each of the two gutter sections so that said beads are in alignment when the sections are joined together, providing a bead extension on each of the adjacent ends of said sections, assembling the sections by inserting one of said bead extensions into the other bead extension, rotating one section toward the other section about the axis of the beads while arranging the male flange in the groove of the other flange, and while maintaining the inner surfaces of the adjacent ends of the sections in alignment bending the assembled flanges over onto the adjacent outer surface of the section carrying the male flange, thereby providing a locking joint between the two sections.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 428,822 Belding May 27, 1890 472,014 Densmore Mar. 29, 1892 503,940 Bonbrake Aug. 29, 1893 506,766 Bowers et al Oct. 17, 1893 919,804 Agar Apr. 27, 1909 1,201,587 Hunker Oct. 17, 1916 1,491,314 Rigby Apr. 22, 1924 

